A longstanding partnership with offbeat author Alex Garland has been in large part the key to his runaway success, but with 127 Hours Boyle proves that source material doesn’t have to come from the pen of Garland in order to create an accomplished movie.

127 Hours is very different from anything he has tackled before and yet it has touches that are distinctly, unmistakeably Boyle – and that's in spite of the film's contained setting, which unavoidably limits what can be done.

Contained setting? Yes. If you didn’t already know, 127 Hours charts the real-life tale of Aron Ralston, a reckless young adventurer who thinks nothing of taking off alone on a whim to explore the hostile US landscape.

During an excursion to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, he falls down a ravine and his arm is trapped by a falling boulder, leaving him unable to move.

As the hours tick by and Ralston’s scant provisions and poor equipment fail to sustain him, he becomes increasingly desperate and delirious until he takes the decision to set himself free by hacking off his arm with a blunt penknife.

While the key scenes are necessarily difficult to watch, 127 Hours is a fascinating portrait of one man’s struggle as well as a depiction of the strength of the human spirit in general.

The film is tense and compelling, even though the main event (Ralston’s initial fall) is over pretty swiftly, and Boyle wastes no time as he shares the mind-set of this hot-headed young man with his sense of invincibility. Early scenes whizz by but are replete with information about Ralston’s character – a person who simply takes off without telling anyone where he’s going.

James Franco’s casting in the role is a masterstroke. As versatile as the film’s director, Franco has the intelligence and charisma to pull off his prolonged amount of screen time, and draws out the arrogance of Ralston as well as the spirit of adventure that compels him to live life on the edge.

Combining the stark reality of his situation with moments of magic realism that amount to hallucinations, daydreams and flashbacksas Ralston is forced to ponder his existencein the face of certain death, we are sharply yanked out of the film’s carefully constructed tension and immersed instead in Ralston’s mind; the psyche of a person who is having to accept a horrific fate.

In this way, Boyle is able to provide answers to the audience’s pertinent questions – what would it be like in such a terrible situation? What would be going through your head?

As well as what actually happens and how a person might handle it, Boyle effectively delves into the psychology of the situation.

Through this technique, Boyle allows us all to identify with Ralston and conveys the idea that in the same circumstances, the human spirit alive in all of us would compel each and every one of us to do the same.